Congressman Starts Inquiry of Windfall to Oil Companies

WASHINGTON

Mr. Pombo, a California Republican, said he was beginning the investigation in response to an article published on Tuesday in The New York Times.

That article, drawing on the Interior Department’s budget plan for next year, reported that the administration expected to give more than $7 billion worth of “royalty relief” to companies producing oil and gas on federal leases in the Gulf of Mexico.